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Leadership Can Be Giving Your Last Bucket of Sand or Singing A Song to Ease...
A few days after Sandy, I found this sign stapled to a poll on the beach in New Dorp, Staten Island. It reads, Thank you to the little girl who gave me her last bucket of sand from the beach to fill...
View ArticleOne Can Count
Watch NYOne!New Elementary School Leadership Program Launches. One Can Count! Last Friday was a good day, thanks to Senator Andrew Lanza and P.S. 5, a beautiful elementary school in Staten Island, New...
View ArticleA Love Letter to Myself
What does prevention mean in the bullying world? Is it that we try to stop people from being mean to each other or is it that we help shield children and adults from the pain it causes.It's a trick...
View ArticleBullying: Overreacting vs. Under Reacting
I've been trying not to share all the brutal bullying stories or at least, not to make it the focus of this blog because I don't think it goes anywhere. Solutions, including encouraging leadership...
View ArticleThe Leader In Me
By now, most people have heard through the news that Pennsylvania 12-year-old Bailey O'Neill died of injuries believed to be the result of physical bullying. He tried to walk away but found himself...
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Untangling the Mess of Bullying
When Emily Bazelon's new book, Sticks and Stones, recently came out, it reignited the bullying prevention conversation. It comes in ebbs and flows. I can't comment on the book yet. I'm hoping to get...
View ArticleEveryone Needs a "Blocker": Leadership Lessons from Nebraska
Friendship. It's a life saver.I've been lucky. I've had many friends but I've also gone through times in my life when people who I thought were my friends were somehow absent when I really needed...
View ArticleParents and Children: Lessons on Leadership from Boston
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”― Fred RogersBoston. Poor Boston. Poor...
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Little Upstanders Make a Big Difference
Bullying prevention is complicated. Sometimes it seems that it's bigger than all of us but it's not insurmountable. We have an untapped army out there. If we start training bystanders to start...
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Bullying: Are Schools Entirely to Blame?
The last post was from the perspective of a parent. It's also fair to look at things from the perspective of the school.What I hear from many elementary school principals is that "bullying" has become...
View ArticleLeadership: Josh's Example
Leadership. It's so powerful but it can be so simple. Josh's story is proof that it can also be catching. In his case, it was also the answer to overcoming the long tail of pain that bullying...
View ArticleSiblings, The Summer, and Bullying
This week's anti-bullying buzz is about siblings. A new study published by the journal Pediatrics, reveals that sibling bullying can be just as harmful as peer bullying to children's mental...
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Bullying, Forgiveness and a Little Summer Reflection
When someone hurts us or even worse, hurts our children, the anger can run deep. Legitimately deep.One of the knotted strings in the tangled ball of bullying is how our anger can eat us up. It takes...
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Expecting More of Each Other
Life is funny. Sometimes you meet the most interesting people in the most random ways. A few months ago, I was helping my friend Gary Russo (a.k.a. Second Avenue Sinatra) with organizing a singing...
View ArticleThe Worst Kind of Bullying
Child abuse is the worst form of bullying.Each one of us has the power to be the Go-To Adult. To me, the biggest concern is kids suffering in silence. How do we get them to talk to a "trusted adult."...
View ArticleFor the Bullied and Beautiful: Shane Koyczan
I was just in Huntsville, Alabama. School started there on Monday. It always surprises me because living on the east coast, Labor Day weekend is cherished as the last weekend of freedom. August...
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Kindergarten: Good Time to Create Good School Relationship
There are four strings in the tangled ball of bullying that I think are really important:• Early Prevention• Parenting• Parent-School Relationship• Role of the Bystander (Upstander!)I thought of...
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Mike Ollis: A Young Leader Who Gave His Life For Us
Time heals...but anniversaries trip us up and bring us back to that horrible day 12 years ago.This anniversary brings a new wound for one Staten Island family that may never heal. Today is the day...
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One Can Count Moment
I always wondered why somebody didn't do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody. -- Lily TomlinI've always thought that Lily Tomlin was hysterical...but now I also think of her as very...
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Make Every Day A Better One!
Leadership is the act of doing good when no one is looking.But everyone likes to be recognized, including kids.It's also leadership to recognize the good deeds of others.Here's my hot tip for October,...
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